Today, I interview a man who lives in my favourite country - Thailand, and I do hope to catch up with him in a few months. He is a man with more than 30 years' experience in teaching English language and
literature to students and adults. Fluent in Italian, mother tongue
English. Passable in spoken Thai. French & Spanish understood,
degreed in honours English. Poet and novelist. Keen ornithologist in
Asia and Europe.

Welcome, Jonathan ... Sawasdee khup,

1.TELL US A LITTLE
ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR WRITING JOURNEY.

I started writing poems
in my teens. I became over-interested in writers, their lives and their work.
They became companions, too. I wrote to console myself. In my twenties I wrote poems,
novels and short stories. Some poems won prizes. I stopped writing in my
thirties and forties, but came back to words in middle age by which time the
muse had departed.

2.WHEN AND HOW DID YOU
BECOME A WRITER?

I became a writer in my teens and twenties. I wrote to
console myself and to order chaos.

3.WHAT TYPE OF PREPARATION DO YOU DO FOR A MANUSCRIPT? DO YOU PLAN
EVERYTHING FIRST OR JUST SHOOT FROM THE HIP?

The creative process varies for me but I
never plan meticulously. I often have a central idea or with a novel an
awareness of its overall intention, that is my overall intention, too.

4.WHAT DO YOU ENJOY
MOST ABOUT BEING A WRITER?

The idea of creating something beautiful and worthwhile.

5.WHAT IS THE HARDEST
THING ABOUT BEING A WRITER?

For me it’s lack of recognition or the struggle to get
people to read me.

6.WHAT WERE YOU IN A
PAST LIFE, BEFORE YOU BECAME A WRITER?

I was possibly a Thailand traveller in some form or
another. Thailand is where I have lived for fifteen years and despite problems
and racism I’d prefer to stay here rather than go back to Europe.

7.WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST
WRITING ACHIEVEMENT?

Some of my poems?

8.WHAT ARE YOU WORKING
ON AT THE MOMENT?

I’m revising and editing a collection of essays, stories
and blogs about Pattaya, that extreme city on Thailand’s eastern seaboard where
I live.

9.WHAT INSPIRES YOU?

Some poems and novels, myself, the city where I live –
Pattaya.

10.WHAT GENRE DO YOU
WRITE?

Mainly fiction now.

11.DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS
FOR NEW WRITERS?

There are all the usual tips out there : write, read,
write, edit, select after collecting, don’t get too discouraged, but if I had
one thing to say I would say there are too many books out there, so read the
greats, and read them again unless you feel you just want to write one genre
(like space sci-fi) but then for me you are already “lost” because you have opted
out of the real task, the writer’s duty, which is to present a recognisable
world in a heightened and intelligent manner. That’s real enlightenment, real
endeavour, but as you will have realised I’m old-fashioned and moralistic. Jane
Austen would have agreed with me, though (and a few others!).

12.DO YOU SUFFER FROM
WRITER’S BLOCK?

No, but as mentioned I stopped writing for years for
personal and economic reasons.

32.WHAT SHOULD READERS WALK AWAY FROM YOUR BOOKS KNOWING? HOW SHOULD
THEY FEEL?

They should somehow feel enriched. They should think about
life not in the abstract. They should know more about me.

33.WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE YOUR BOOKS MADE INTO MOVIES? EVER WRITTEN A
SCREENPLAY?

I
wrote a play for theatre many decades ago. I think some of my books could be
filmed.

34.HOW MUCH THOUGHT GOES INTO DESIGNING A BOOK COVER?

The
self-publishing world stresses the importance of excellent, attractive,
appealing cover-design. I have tried to give a lot of thought to covers and with
the help of a friend I have progressed a bit, I think, but overall I do opt out
because words are my task.

35.WHAT’S YOUR ULTIMATE DREAM?

I’m sixty-seven. I love
Shakespeare. How can I have an ultimate dream? If pushed, I want God to exist
without all the polemic and the dire problems that kill Him (but remember “We
are such stuff / As dreams are made on and our little life / Is rounded with a
sleep.”).

36.WRITING IS ONE
THING. WHAT ABOUT MARKETING YOU, YOUR BOOKS AND YOUR BRAND? ANY THOUGHTS?

Marketing is overwhelming. It devours time. The book
publishers out there help the authors they select. They have a vested interest
in their authors selling. If you are on your own, then of course try all the
channels if you have stamina, time, and expertise (or even if you don’t, I
imagine you should try them).

37.ARE YOUR BOOKS
SELF-PUBLISHED?

Well, last century, no. This century, yes.

38.DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN FIVE WORDS.

Dedicated. Committed. A
word-lover.

39.WHAT PISSES YOU OFF MOST?

Difficult to answer. You need to be extremely self-aware to
answer this one with a modicum of intelligence. In the end, it’s probably me
that pisses me off the most – and so that
sense leaves me in the mire.

40.WHAT IS THE TITLE OF THE LAST BOOK YOU READ? GOOD ONE?

“Norwegian Wood”.

41.WHAT WOULD BE THE VERY LAST
SENTENCE YOU’D WRITE?

The people I’ve seen
dying don’t get round to it, so I will imagine I am in good health, concluding
my last work of literature. The very last sentence would be “Well, I suppose
I’m glad that’s over. I can now even read the stuff once again.”

42. WHAT WOULD MAKE YOU HAPPIER
THAN YOU ARE NOW? CARE TO SHARE?

Knowing the Asian child
I live with now has a better life than many of the girls I meet in Pattaya
(Thailand). This answer could well change in the future. That’s what it’s all
about, getting answers “right” even in a context, in a moment of time - unfortunately.